How Social Media Celebrates a Birthday

Today is my birthday. Today I turn a quarter of a century old. I’ve learned a lot in my 25 years on this planet. Every year has been more difficult than the last. More responsibility, more challenges. I embrace them. I thrive off them. I learn from them, and I grow from them.

OK, enough of my philosophical rant. A birthday is a day to celebrate! So I took some time out of my day to surf the web and I came across some interesting tidbits. Several social media platforms and other websites were all too willing to wish me a happy birthday!

Google

Google celebrates birthdays better than any other site I know of. If you accurately set your birthday in your Google+ profile, Google remembers and actually goes as far as customizing the Google home page. All you have to do is be logged in to Google+ and bam!

Check that out! A personalized search engine page on my birthday. Not bad!

OK, it’s a small gesture, but I still think it’s pretty cool. But Google doesn’t stop there. I logged into Google+ and had several notifications of others wishing me a happy birthday. It occurred to me that I had seen Google+ notifications in the past when it was others birthdays, so individuals who have me circled must have seen the notification and reached out to me.

On top of that, I fired up the Google iOS search app today (now integrated with Google Now), and I got my 3rd birthday surprise.

FourSquare

FourSquare, not to be outdone by Google, decided to get in on the action too. I don’t even remember telling FourSquare when my birthday was, but apparently I did. When I checked in to dinner tonight, I got a nice surprise.

OK, again, this is peanuts. But a very nice gesture none the less.

Final Thoughts

So the above birthday wishes might not be earth shattering revelations, but I still think they are pretty cool. It’s nice when sites you know and love (and use daily) put out a little extra effort to reach out to their users.